Leant about Processor Technology/ Microchips

All the privileges of a computer mainly depend on a microchip which is called as a ‘Processor’. Simply it is a burnished Silicon plate where transistor circuits are arranged but comes with an amazing power. In the recent past, processors was not a much popular topic among people. But soon it became much popular with the improvement of the processors and because of the increasing competition among the processor manufacturing companies. There are only few processor manufacturing companies all around the world. ‘Intel’ and ‘AMD’ are the most popular out of them.  

Although Intel stood much forward, with the new processor set introduced by the AMD, the situation has bit changed. This new processor of AMD Company was introduced in late February in 2017 and it was named as ‘Ryzen’. These Ryzen processors are in the competition with the new processor introduced by the Intel Company on 3rd of January 2017, which was named as ‘Kaby Lake’. It has been more competitive because the Ryzen processors and Kaby Lake processors tit for tat. But when it comes to the subject; efficiency of the processors, Ryzen processors are the best among all the other processors at the moment. Keep on reading. Let’s run back to the ancient time of these processors first of all.

Microchip History


When it goes back, nearly for 70 years from today, on 16th of December in 1947, William Shockley, John Badin, and Vaulter Breton found the transistors for the Bell Labs in the USA. With this new innovation of transistors, they were replaced with most of the parts, such as the valves or the vacuum tubes, in electronic devices during those days.    

First generation computers came with the valves which are also called as vacuum tubes. But from the next generation, that means from the second generation, computers came with the circuits with transistors. These transistors were modified for the electronic computers which means the third generation computers. It was done by Robert Noyce and Jack Kilby.   

Jack Kilby was from the Texas Instruments in the USA and Robert Noyce was from the Fairchild Semiconductor Inc. In 1961, both of them separately found that all the transistors, resistors, capacitors, and the wires connecting them, can be reconstituted on a single semiconductor/ chip. This is the first impression of the innovation of Processors/ Microchips.   

In 1968, Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, and Andy Grove created a company and it was named as Intel. Computers were taken to the fourth generation from the third generation by them with their creation of the World’s First Microchip in 1971 which was named as ‘Intel 4004’. There were 2300 transistors included in that microchip.



Moore’s Law of Microchips

Although the world’s first microchip came with only 2300 transistors, that amount began to increase immediately. Gordon Moore, who considered this situation, wrote an article to the ‘Electronics Magazine’ published in the USA on 19th April 1965. There he described that the amount of the transistors that can be included in a microchip doubles in every two years. This showing has been satisfied even for today. This saying of Moore is known as the ‘Moore’s Law’ today.



How The Microchips Are Being Made?

To make microchips, Sea sand is being used. Silicon bars with different diameters are being made after cleaning the sand until they are 99.9999% siliconized, by warming them in a high heat. Those silicon bars are called as ‘Ingot’. From those silicon bars, thin slices with a thickness of about 1/30’’. Then those slices are being belayed smoothly. Such a silicon plate is called as a ‘Polished Wafer’.  

Then an electric resisted, Silicon Dioxide [SiO2] layer is being applied to this plate and then a Photoresist Layer is also being applied. Next step is, sending ultraviolet rays on to this silicon plate. This method of making chips by sending ultraviolet rays is called as ‘Deep Ultraviolet Optical Lithography’. This light is being sent through a block of the silicon plate which is called as a ‘Mask’. The single chip piece created after that procedure is called as a ‘Die’. When the ultraviolet rays hit the light-sensitive chemical [Photoresist Layer] applied to the plate, those areas get congealed. Then a high-speed blast is being sent on to this Wafer and it blows-out the unnecessary things on it, keeping the congealed chemical parts.  

After the completion of these steps, a small circuit is created on that wafer. That circuit is so small where the measurements can only be done in Nanometers. After all, the wafer is being covered with an Aluminium plate. Then this chip can be divided into the parts considering the purpose.



Transistors and Microchips

A transistor is the main electronic switch of a Chip. All the microchips have been made consisting many of these transistors. With the method Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce found of creating a microchip, more transistors are being placed on a small room of a chip and make a microchip.  

When trying to place more and more transistors on a small surface, the abrasion paths must be tiny as well. The size of these paths on the modern microchips is 14nm. Therefore nearly 14 million transistors can be placed on a 1mm2 surface of a processor. From 2014, IBM Company is producing these type of processors. Intel Kaby Lake and AMD Ryzen are also same as those processors.



Modern Processor Technology

Processors with a special structure that can handle the orders given by the modern Operating Systems and programs are there on the trend today. They come with a moderated structure [ISA – Instruction Set Architecture] and technically they are considered as the processors with X86 architecture. This architecture is also found by the Intel Company. But today, there are many other companies also use this technology. As told in the very beginning, Kaby Lake and Ryzen Processors are the most suitable examples for this.



Final Thoughts...

Single core processors have been developed by the time and now there are Dual core, Quad core, Octa-core, Hexa-core and even Deca core processors. With their development, the speed, efficiency & effectiveness also has been increased and their prices as well. So the computers come with that kind of developed processors are far better than the others. Almost all the quality and the demand of a computer is based on this small microchip. So having a computer with a good processor is awesome than having a computer with better equipment such as an expensive keyboard, mouse, screen, but with a poor quality processor. Hope you found at least a single fact that helps you to improve your knowledge. Subscribe to this blog and be in touch to be the first to read the next post. And don’t forget to leave a comment below about what you think of this post, and if there’s anything you know more than the facts described above, be humane to share that knowledge with all the other readers as well by leaving a comment in the comment session below.


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